PSO2: Transcendence
by Zich1
Summary: A CAST with lost memories and a Newman with an unspeakable past come together to join a fight against the profound darkness.
1. Chapter 1: She who does not belong here

**CHAPTER 1:**

 **She who does not belong here**

…

…..

….

Status … Online …

Name … Eriler …

Race … CAST …

Sex … Female …

Class … Ranger …

Organisation … GUARDIAN … error: Organisation not found … rebooting in

… 3

… 2

… 1

"Hey partner!" A blonde Newman waved at her, "What's your name?"

"… Eriler."

"I'm Alfin and it looks like we've been paired together for this final test, are you ready?"

Eriler could only stare blankly at Alfin.

The feeling of being in a spaceship, being deployed for the next mission, all seemed so familiar yet alien at the same time. Even Alfin's somewhat loose clothing and shoes was nothing she had ever seen. A quick search in her database revealed nothing save for the name 'Arks' that kept popping out. How did she come to join this place was a hole in her memory as if someone had wiped it away yet she could not shake of the feeling that all these was for a brighter day.

"I can't believe I'm finally becoming an Arks operative after all the training. I've been looking forward to this since the attack ten years ago."

"… ten years ago?"

"You don't remember what happened ten years ago?" Alfin patted the back of his head, "actually I don't remember much of it either, other than one of the residential ships was invaded by Darkers."

 _SEED_.

"Since then Regius have been stepping up efforts to recruit those talented in photon manipulation into Arks to fight against the Darkers."

"Who's Regius?"

"Oh, didn't you see the announcement just now? The white-coloured cast giving a speech earlier is Regius, he's one of the 3 Victors to stand against Dark Falz."

All the information was swarming in her head and it was probably wise to stop prodding until whatever this test is over. As the ship trembled lightly against the atmospheric pressure, a feeling of nostalgia settled into her core processor; now how does an android feel from the sea of binaries was beyond her comprehension but she felt and that was all that it mattered.

* * *

"Hey partner, are you spacing out? Nah I get it, it's our final exam, you're nervous … well me too. We should be a little on edge but as long as we do our it'd turn out okay, partner." Alfin paused, "we're still pretty new, but let's try to get the basics down, would you like to go through the tutorial again?"

Eriler stared incredulously at Alfin but decided to not say anything and moved forward anyway. This Newman mistook her for a newbie. After all, she was still a commander of … some sniper unit in some organisation … the details were fuzzy as she tried to access her memory module yet her gut feel insisted this wasn't her first battle.

"Hey partner! Don't move off by yourself, wait for me!"

"Okay", she and "added silently, no promises."

As they navigated through tall grasses and trees, an ape stood in their path munching greedily on a fruit, sucking out all the juices and Alfin's courage dry.

"Is … is that a native creature? It doesn't look aggressive … does it?"

If there's one thing Eriler learnt in her non-existent past life well, it would be - anything that blocks your path to quest completion _is_ aggressive or it _will_ be if it isn't yet. Instinctively she summoned a rifle in hand, took aim and squeezed the trigger.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Three rounds of photon bullets fired off the barrel and landed right into the tree brunch beside the ape. As if laughing at her feeble attempt, the ape rolled over to the side and refused to get up. Well, this was embarrassing.

"Ya … how did you rookies even get into the final exam if you can't even beat a Woodan?" A red-haired man walked forward with a blade that smoked at the edge. "I should be a kind senior and walk you through your training again. If you fall unconscious, I'd sprinkle moon atmoizer on you, don't worry."

"Whoa ~ where did you come from?" Alfin flipped.

"Hmm," the man looked away, "I was questing with Echo she got lost … so here I am saving your asses from a Woodan. You," he pointed to Eriler, "What's your name?"

"…"

The man shrugged, "I was a Ranger too and that is far by the worst accuracy in managing that assault rifle. You should practice more."

Eriler instinctively raised the barrel of her weapon at the red-haired man, "Maybe I should shoot you instead."

"Whoa, chill! I'm Zeno and I'm just trying to be helpful!"

"So am I."

Zeno shrugged. "A little feisty here are we?"

"My accuracy with a 3 point burst might be that of a child but I can assure you my 1 point is on point."

Zeno looked thoughtful for a moment. "If you're a one point shooter you should use a gunslash instead."

"Thanks for the advice," Eriler said coolly, with the barrel still aimed at his head.

"Alright rookies, let's move on and complete your examinations!" Zeno said cheerfully.

"One more rookie from you and the next to go is your knee."

Zeno raised both hands in defeat. "What a partner you have here …" he whispered to Alfin, who was too shocked to even mutter a word.

* * *

~ Shing ~

A ball of red light jumped up to Eriler's face and exploded, the shrapnel dug deep into her forearms if not for her quick reaction to shield her face while her vision turned red with warning alarms cautioning of low HP and body feeling heavier.

"Partner! Looks like you've been hurt by an air mine, quickly drink a monomate to recover some health!"

Eriler looked back incredulously with a stray shrapnel stuck at the side of her temple that made her look like some sort of psychotic android seeking revenge. She thought of a comeback for Alfin's comment but decided to just gulp down the monomate in her inventory. Whatever sorcery stored inside that small packet of sugary drink conjured up whirlwind of light that lifted the red vision and weight that pulled dragged her down just few moments ago.

"Pa… partner, there's a … there's a piece …"

Her fingers found the piece of metal stuck in head and yanked it out like a badass while growling at the two men who were too stunned to say anything else. "I'm going to murder whoever planted that piece garbage there."

Alfin whimpered, "Use cripple bullet."

As if granting her wish, waves of dark wind blew into existence an army spider-like monsters with a shiny red core at the bottom. This almost felt like Moatoob all over again and that was when her consciousness realised her circuitry froze with an explainable fear and all she hears in her own head was 'error, error, does not compute …"

"What are the darkers doing on Naberius?" Alfin squeaked.

"Well, there has been reports of increased Darkers appearance in Naberius, that's why they sent you rookies down for the final test. Being an Arks operative is dangerous, quit if you can't handle this …" With that Zeno raised his arms up high and summoned up a bright unicorn that dashed through the army of spider Darkers in one straight charge that obliterated them into dust.

 _SUV_

Yet even with such power, two takes a place of a fallen one. The battlefield was soon flooded by a sea of Darkers thirsty for some blood.

"Come! Let's get out of here!" Zeno urged but Eriler's limbs refused to accept any commands issued from the brain.

Alfin was the first to run ahead but seeing his partner left in this state, he pulled her arm along and ran out of harm's way with Zeno in lead.

 _CAST Supremacy_

With Zeno's navigational capabilities, they reached the end point in no time where a teleporter stood still waiting for any Arks operative to return to mothership. As they stepped into the teleporter, they were greeted by an angry blonde Newman with two pony tails. Without introductions, they all guessed this was the 'Echo' that Zeno was whining about.

"Ah, Echo, glad that we finally found you!"

Echo folded her arms, "Are you sure it's not the other way round?"

Zeno laughed sheepishly, "Fine, I'd remember to restock on telepipes next time."


	2. Chapter 2: She who is a failure

**CHAPTER 2:**

 **She who is a failure**

It was a long trip back to the mother ship. The trip felt even longer with Echo and Zeno considering bickering about the most nonsensical stuff ever like how Zeno keeps running off on his own but it's only Echo who can't keep up. Seriously if these two had turned on their maps perhaps they wouldn't have lost each other so easily but who was she to say anything? Eriler was nothing more than a CAST who froze at the sight of Darkers - the very beings that Arks were trained to deal with yet she simply froze.

Even with Alfin's encouraging words didn't ease her emotions one bit - the fear was real, more so than Humans or Newmans because CASTs were no more than circuitry run by a complicated set of binaries thus lead to the eventual condition of CASTs being a supreme race for they felt no fear and made no stupid decisions.

Yet she did.

* * *

As the ship docked into place, the party walked back to the gate together where she was welcomed by sights of Humans, Newmans and Casts of all sexes, colours and sizes interacting with each other as if they were equal. The sight trickled her curiosity as the sight was as alien as Darkers befriending Arks.

"Are you Eriler?" A voice spoke into the inner ear speakers, "I'm Ashalt, your orientation officer, visit me near the elevator for your next task."

Looking across the hallway she spotted a CAST in uniform that displayed the name 'Ashalt' on her HUD. As she walked towards her next objective, more information was loaded over everyone's head with their names and team names. This again, was a totally new interface as compared wherever she came from.

"Eriler, welcome to Arks," Ashalt bowed, "I'm your orientation officer who will give you your next objective to familiarise yourself with Arks. My intel says you're a special intake cohort so please do not reveal your identity to anyone that is not your partner for they will find no information on you and complications will appear."

"… What?"

"Your next objective is to meet your partner, Yoshinda in room C-14. Every new arks member will be assigned an experienced partner to guide them in the way of the photons. Although CASTs are weaker in general to communicate with photons, we have restructured your physical body part that allows you to weaponized your photons to a certain degree."

Eriler nodded even though she didn't understood one bit of what Ashalt just said.

"In the event that you are unhappy with your partner, you may raise a request to be on your own after passing all the beginner tests that we will give you along the way. In the event where you feel abused, stressed or under duress to act against your wishes, please call our Ark's helpline for us to act upon."

* * *

Finally some R&R Eriler thought; even though CASTs were no more than robots, they were constructed with prosthetic limbs and organs to closely resemble that of a person. No one knew the exact reason behind, some theorized this is so they could function logically like a human but far better - this she recalled that much. In return they feel exhaustion like people do after a mission thus R&R became a crucial part of her military life especially because CASTs were overworked more than normal people - and she wore that fact with pride, CAST pride.

"C-14," a seemly innocent number turned into a complex numbering system. As she stood before the directory running through the numbers, the highest number she could find on Row C was '10', there was no '14'.

Never mind, Eriler thought, perhaps she should walk down to the end of the corridor to find any 'hidden' passage way that would lead to her new quarters. The corridor glowed brightly with light coming through full sized transparent windows on the right while doors to individual Arks quarters were on the left. As compared to her military base built down under, this certainly lifts the mood up - even for CASTS.

She was greeted with a plain looking wall at the end of unit 10 with no suspicious cervices that might hide a switch. Not even with her surgical precise eyes sight could she find anything. Or perhaps the plainest wall could also mean someone is making a lot of effort to hide it …

"What are you doing?" A little girl's voice came from behind.

Eriler calmly turned around to find a little girl with white long hair, tied in a ponytail with large ribbons. "I'm … looking for my quarter …"

The little girl frowned, "You're new? What am I asking, of course you're new, the management always gives specific instructions to humans, newmans, denumans but never be specific with CASTs," She sighed, "So where did they tell you to go?"

"C-14 …"

She frowned even more as if her eyebrows were dying to meet each other. "There is no unit 14 in Block C …"

"But it shows here …" Eriler drew up the menu on her arm interface and showed the little girl.

"Baka ne Eril-san," she burst into bouts of laughter, "if you rotate it 180 degrees, the address is Block Z1- room 3, hahaha."

"Oh."

"Hahaha, I'd bring you to the teleporter to your room, baka, baka, baka HAHAHAHA ~"

As they made way to the teleporter, Eril's burning curiosity overwhelmed her shame and poked the little girl, "how did you know my name?" Ashalt did say her name is not in the database …

The little girl stared at her momentarily for a moment and bent over for another few bouts laughter and when she decided it was enough, she looked at Eriler and wiped off left over tears, "I don't know where you came from but you really a baka CAST, Eriler. You just have to switch overhead display from your HUD menu and you can see the name of Arks that are in the database …"

And that was when she found out the little girl's name was called 'Reina'.

* * *

The rest of the journey became smooth after learning how to read Arks font, which was totally different from what she was used to. Room 3, Eriler took a deep breath hoping she wouldn't get a weirdo for a roommate. Back in the military they slept in bunks of 6 but when she promoted to commander level she had a quarter all to herself and it was especially crucial to her after a long day of bloodshed and violence where she just wants to turn off her vision and not think of anything.

"Hello?" She called as the door opened. There was no reply, instead a soft, familiar music was playing and somehow she recognised the song and lyrics -

 _Standing still, I look to the sky,_

 _I want to see your tomorrow,_

 _Let my soul stay in your heart,_

 _If our destiny comes to ruin -_

And subconsciously she sang along softly as she walked into a spacious but empty room. This was one of the tracks she would sing to herself alone when she was … not in the military anymore.

To the right was a smaller door which slid opened on its own she was near and revealed a woman sitting on a chair positioned beside the jukebox and above her head, the name 'Yoshinda' appeared. A woman with thick arms, her hair was tied up in a Victorian up do style with feathered earrings hanging by both ears. As the music played, she sat still, her hands cupped together and resting on her thighs in the most elegant way ever. Yet when she turned around to face Eriler, the monochrome face paint of a skull sent chills down her circuitry that startled her somewhat.

"What happened to your face?" Eriler asked, almost immediately, she wanted to take her words back.

"It's a reflection of who I am …" Yoshinda said, as she faced the jukebox. "Welcome Eriler, I've been told to expect you. As a newly appointed Arks operative, there are a lot of things to pick up."

Eriler's logic gates somehow stopped working as she stepped forward boldly. "What do you mean it's a reflection?"

"… it is best that you do not delve into what doesn't concern you."

"Then do you know who I am?"

"You're a failure Eriler, a defect. We're both failures, both defects."


	3. Chapter 3: A tale of two enders

**CHAPTER 3:**

 **A Tale of 2 Enders**

Do CASTs dream of electronic sheep?

Probably a silly question but seeing how Eriler tosses and turns in the midst of the night and sometimes mumbling in alien language makes Yoshinda re-think her partner's identity as a robot.

50 years in a military full of androids yet still so person at the same time just doesn't add up. Maria and Regius probably lived at least a century before attaining that level of self-awareness and Risa well … just likes to put holes into things with her rifle. Yet that still doesn't explain much about her origins.

All Maria said to her one day was "I'm going to assign you a partner, she is also crucial in 'The Plan'" and that was it. Of course she couldn't say much over the intercom with Luther and his underlings monitoring the entire Arks communications system, so Yoshinda scheduled visits to Naberius planet hoping to run into her.

Ever since the six pillars sealed Dark Falz Elder in the Ruins area of Naberius 10 years ago , Maria occasionally patrols the area to ensure the seal was still strong because there are way too many darkers gathering in that area and that might pose a problem.

Instead of Maria, she ran into Sarah who, on the surface was under Maria but is actually under the command of someone higher. Who in this organisation is higher than Regius and Luther? She couldn't even begin to imagine.

"Oh, look who's here, Skull face Yoshi, what are you doing here?" Sara asked.

Yoshinda stared at Sarah for a full minute - this never fails to send chills down people's spine. "… looking for Maria. Need to talk to her privately."

"About your new partner?"

Calm down, don't let her throw you off guard, Yoshinda thought to herself. "… Yes." This Sarah sometimes know too much and that doesn't sit well with her.

"I overheard their conversation about bringing this CAST without a body from another universe."

"Go on."

"Mmm, said something about this CAST went berserk and murdered a few farmers. They - as in the organisation in the other universe - was going to de-commission but was stopped by another sage-level CAST."

Yoshinda raised an eyebrow. "Sage?"

"Yeah, like you know, really, really old, even older than Maria or Regius. Maybe he came from another star system, I don't know but this CAST had a lot of say in matters like these."

"What's the name?"

"Wren."

"Never heard of it."

"Neither have I. Anyways Yoshinda, Wren seems to think this CAST will be useful in Maria's cause but I think," Sarah smirked, "You have to watch yourself when you sleep, I heard she killed people with her _bare_ hands. Sounds familiar? **Bare** _hands_."

Yoshinda simply stared whilst chanting to herself to not let this kid get to her. How could anyone more powerful than Maria give Sarah so much authority? She couldn't understand.

And that was the end of their conversation.

Murdering CAST sharing the same room as her huh? CASTs lack empathy which made murdering anyone an easy task. Mostly hired as assassins for their on point accuracy but putting one with her in the same room they sleep? Maria better have a good reason for this.

If she had to sleep with Risa, she would sure tie her up with the strongest rope found in the universe before turning in for the night. But Eriler was not Risa and there was no murderous hint found in her at all, unlike herself, whom when looking into the mirror, only saw bloodshed behind those innocent pupils.

* * *

"Morning Eriler," Yoshinda said coolly, "First we have breakfast, then I'd walk you through getting your Arks license the quickest way possible."

Eriler's head tilted onside in confusion, "don't I already have a license?"

"That license you have only allows you to operate as an Arks Operative. You can take quests, you can engage missions with other stronger, more experienced people but you don't have those access by yourself. So, you have to go through individual tests handed out from our admin officer, Cofy."

"Arks have secured 3 planets within this star system Eriler, the 4th one is still being explored by the more experienced operatives. So we have to unlock all the areas of that 3 planets before we can unlock the 4th one."

Eriler seemed even more confused. "And why do we need to do that? We just have to kill Darkers right?"

Yoshinda took a deep breath. This was going to be difficult to explain. Everyone who sat through Arks classes know the reason but this Eriler was inserted during a final exam and thus is clueless of everything. "Let me condense what is taught in school for 7 years into 10 mins."

"Firstly, we need to strengthen our skills according to our classes, and second to get better equipment and lastly to build synergy with the rest of the Arks so when Dark Falz attacks us, we can drive him away."

"Better equipment …? How …?"

"The scientists found that photons react differently on different planets and if we let the equipment that we use to infuse with the planet's atmosphere long enough, it becomes stronger. Since a century ago, Arks have been dumping random weapons or armor on these planets for the natives to horde and years later, they become more powerful."

"I feel like we're making use of them and then slaughtering them, that feels wrong…"

Yoshinda took a deep breath again. Is this really the same murdering CAST that Sarah talked about? "Okay, if it makes you any better, the passive natives are the ones doing the hoarding but eventually their stock gets stolen by hostile natives and we're killing the aggressive ones. The innocent ones don't usually pounce on us."

"Okay," still not sounding convinced.

* * *

"You have accepted a mission, please proceed to the gate ship for departure" was the message that flashed across their HUD.

While Eriler was fumbling over the complicated menus to see if she was well stocked, Yoshinda calmly flicked through the hologram menu before her, summoning up weapons, items and ... Clothes. By the time they stepped into the ship, Yoshinda was covered head to toe, from the casual Yukata she wore to bed to her battle wear, Zelsius Snow.

Eriler could only stare in envy as casts are limited to wearing different body parts - arms, legs, body - while not all clothes were durable enough to withstand a CAST's rough body.

The Zelsius series was hailed as the ultimate gimmick for it claimed to allow users to blend in to the surroundings with the special skin tight material that outlines the body's beautiful curves yet at the same time equipped with bulky leg guards for cushion against the surroundings. The neck guard and tail adds an element of menace cuteness. Yet no arks who wore this could truly blend into their surroundings as the description claims

If only she could wear it but she was still metal …

* * *

And metal don't go well with rain. As if testing their resilience, dark clouds swarmed over quickly as rain drops showered the dry forest. Naberius' rain forest had the most unpredictable weather making a good place to harden new operatives in ill environments.

Yoshinda hated the weather here, she hated the rain and she hated thunder. The feeling of being drenched, the thumping sound brought back memories deep from the pit.

 _"Bare_ hands." Serah's voice echoed in her head.

Screw you Serah.

The journey ahead was a breeze. Eriler was a level 10 ranger, Yoshinda a level 50 Techer fighting against level 11 mobs. To top that, Yoshinda also carried a maxed out fire wand with 20% extra damage against Naberius natives. Even though she was packing some serious power, Eriler killed most of the enemies with when Yoshinda pulled all enemies to her in an instant.

Eriler was getting better, she thought, switching between close range diffusion shell to long range piercing shell. It seemed so natural to her it seemed almost doubtful to think she was no more than a sniper in her past life.

The skies cleared after a while, the thunder stopped but shortly after, a sharp piercing scream swept across the forest as Belita the communications officer chimed in to warn of something huge appearing on her radar.

"Hadred … is that you?" A lady wearing Zelsius yellow phased into existence from thin air

The Zelsius actually works! Eriler exclaimed to herself.

"Huh, you can see me?" The lady asked.

Eriler simply nodded.

"Oh it's you," She turned to the other one. "Is that why I'm so visible to you?"

Yoshinda shrugged. "… don't know."

"I heard a scream just now, it might be Hadred … I have to … complete my mission."

"And what did Hadred do? Blow up some lab that he was in and killed a dozen of people? Wake up Quna! Luther is just using you to take out trash."

Quna visibly fumed, "Hadred is not trash!"

Yoshinda backed off. "Okay, Hadred is not trash but a failed experiment by Luther nonetheless and he has gone berserk and now he wants to cover up."

"Like _you_ …?"

"… like _me_."

"Yoshi, Maria saved you, gave you a new life but I'm still here, covered under Luther's wings."

"Save yourself Quna, you're the most human among all Enders."

"So are you."

Yoshinda burst into fits of laughter, "Me? I'm the face of _death_ , Quna!"

 _Bare_ hands.

"Hadred probably wanted no more than freedom, but I … I …"

Quna raised her dagger, "You say I was lucky to be away on a mission that day, I say I wouldn't have lost if I was there."

The distant scream grew closer this time as red bolts begun raining all over them.

Yoshinda turned to Eriler with genuine fear in her eyes. " **DODGE!** "

Fast as lightning, the red currents came and surged through Eriler, causing an immediate shutdown.


	4. Chapter 4: Beneath the shadows

**Beneath the shadows**

Systems rebooting in … 3

… 2

… 1

"It's not over yet!" Eriler shouted.

"Glad you think it isn't," Yoshinda calmly said but the look of concern in her eyes were real. "Quna is luring Ragne away from us, quickly load in your weak bullet and cripple it's weak point."

Weak bullet, an Arks innovation that allows Rangers to load a special bullet that makes any point even weaker than it is, especially when it's a weak point. Before her crawled a four legged giant bug that spews a wave of red energy attacks that span across the entire field. Even with the combined effort of three people, it proved to be a battle too challenging as they spent more time dodging than dishing out damage.

"Eriler!" Yoshinda said, "Use this!" She threw over what looks like a disc with what looks like _SUV_ launch codes. She was clueless what to do with it but natural reflexes made her register the codes into her system, took aim at Ragne's weak point and held the trigger as translucent light formed a target ring on the surface.

"Release the trigger when it's ready!" Yoshinda screamed as she ripped through Ragne's hard shell with Quna. It's front legs already showed signs of cracking but it seemed forever to bring it to kneel on its knees.

How long is this thing going to get ready? Eriler panicked. Her system threatened to crash any minute now as she witnessed Ragne's terrifying jaws clamping down on her partner and inevitably imagined she was the one getting crushed instead. As if feeling frustrated at all the misses, Ragne raised its ugly pincers as red currents started to form at random spots.

Eriler promptly released the trigger and dived to the side as red lighting thundered down on her last position. At the same time, a magnificent pillar of light tore through the clouds and charged into Ragne's red core behind its head.

"Good job! Do it again with weak bullet!" Yoshinda yelled.

Taking a deep breath, Eriler took aim and pulled the trigger again - this time a single bullet landed right into Ragne's core. Without further instructions, Eriler summoned the target ring once more waiting for it to focus.

Ragne screeched once more at the repeated attacks but this time it fell on its broken leg instead. Both Quna and Yoshinda jumped right into the core when it happened.

"Canon ready!" Eriler yelled and Yoshinda nodded in acknowledgement as she switched her melee attacks to charging magic instead.

"NOW!" Eriler let loose another pillar of light while Yoshindar released a circle of wind magic that seemly did nothing until Ragne rested on the floor for good. It's body dissolved under the sun, just like all the darkers they've face so far.

"Can someone explain to me what happened?"

Yoshinda breathed a sigh of relief, "Arks have deployed millions of weaponized Satellites over every discovered planet, the codes was for you to remotely control those satellites."

Quna also looked relieved, "Thank you Yoshinda, Eriler."

"… are you going to kill Haddred when you see him?"

"Yoshinda … I grew up with Haddred, I may not speak his language but I can feel his pain. He needs to be released from this pain. Going berserk, killing people are his only ways to ease the pain temporarily."

"I see."

"I'm sorry I can't ease your pain Yoshinda."

Yoshinda snorted followed by laughter. "No one in this universe can."

"I'd gladly duel with you after I help Haddred, if you're willing. Stay alive till then." With that Quna activated her Zelsius suit and blended in with the environment.

* * *

"Yoshinda," Eriler shook her partner who was struggling hard in her dreams. This must be what the people call 'nightmares'. "Yoshinda!" Desperate to wake her partner up, she might have used a bit more force that rolled Yoshinda right into a wall instead.

Sometimes she woke up with a full bladder, sometimes she woke up with a running nose but this was the first time she woke up feeling like she was kicked in the face by the feet of an AIS. Yoshinda rolled to her sides as pain conquered her entire face.

"Gosh! I'm so sorry Yoshinda! I just … saw you struggling and I …"

"Monomate … give me…"

Eriler promptly rolled Yoshinda to face her and squeezed the sweet drink right into her mouth that seem to relief enough pain for her to raise her pain and charge up magic.

"Whoa, Yoshinda, I'm so sorry, don't hit me!"

When she released her magic, it was resta that lifted all the pain instead of some offensive spell. This triggered Eriler's curiosity as weapons was banned on Arks ship and without the weapons, Forces or Techers can't cast spells at all …

"Oh god, you almost killed me!"

"I am so sorry! But … did you just violate ARKS law of magic?"

Yoshinda sighed, "No, ARKS prohibits use of weaponry within residential areas … I didn't use any weapons …"

"Then how …"

There always comes the time where partners eventually have to sit down and have 'the talk' where one reveals his or her skeleton in the closet. This was one of the reasons Yoshinda never had any partners for she only wanted for the past to be buried together with the pile of cover ups that came after the event.

"Eriler … Arks regulations is no weapons in residential or transport areas."

"And you didn't use a weapon but …"

"Forces traditionally require a medium to channel their photons into the weapons to conjure technics whether offensive or supportive so it's taken for granted that Forces or Techers can't use magic here."

"You didn't …"

Yoshinda sighed, she just wanted to curl up into a ball and make everything go away. Instead, she buried her skull face into the comforts of her hands and let the her emotions flow. "I'm sorry I can't do this."

* * *

Being a cast meant being emotionless yet at that very moment, Eriler crawled up to her partner, swallowed her up in a warm embrace and gently stroking her crimson hair. "It's okay, you don't have to tell if you don't want to."

And they stayed in that position till Yoshinda tired herself up and fell into a deep sleep. Some of the paint went off from the cheeks area and revealed a perfect complexion and perhaps … a pretty face too.

Whatever happened to Yoshinda, she was dying to know. It was weird for a CAST to care even a little but that didn't discourage her determination one bit. It was bright an early in the morning when the announcement came into their HUD that Quna is holding her concert tour in this ship but Yoshinda was still fast asleep. Eriler quietly stepped out of the room and headed straight to the door. Maybe she could catch Quna in action and ask what's going on,

But how was she going to get Quna's attention? She disappears every time the concert ends. Now perhaps if she could pretend to be sniping her on the far end of the ship, it might catch her attention …

And so that was what she did, taking the lift up to the 4th story where there's a balcony overlooking the stage. When the floating stage floated in and Quna phased in from nowhere to greet everyone, Eriler took aim, ready to fire but with safety on.

"What are you doing?"

Eriler jumped, pulling the trigger accidentally and relieved to know safety was on. She turned back and saw Quna in Zelsius suit and turned back to see Quna in idol suit. "What the hell?"

"What you see there is just a hologram. My job is to observe the crowd and pick out any dangerous individual that might pose a threat to Arks. You seem pretty dangerous to me right now." She folded her arms, demanding an answer.

"Quna, I wanted to know … what happened to Yoshinda?"

Quna looked hard and deep into Eriler's eyes deciding if she could say anything. "Do you know we're both from Enders?"

"No. What are Enders?"

"We're part of a secret organization within Arks that possess unparalleled skills and power to the rest of the populations. We're handed out missions by hand from time to time to complete. If we don't, our lives end."

Eriler simply blinked.

"I was the weakest, if not for my pretty face and the hologram concert you see down there, I would've been ended by now. Haddred, Yoshinda, me, we're all born from the labs through experimental techniques, we're enhanced, that's what makes us so powerful. Yoshinda was born a failed experiment, her photons alignment was on a much lower scale than humans and she's newman, newmans have much higher alignment than all other races, so they discarded her. Do you know how failed experiments are being discarded?"

Eriler shook her head.

"We're being thrown into the grinder, like food, our flesh, our bones are just torn by two giant wheels that shreds you into bits, leaving behind a bloody mess. That's where Yoshinda was headed as a child, I wasn't there but I heard the tales. Yoshinda was a fighter and while she was being fed into the grinder, her arms went ablaze and burnt through the thick armor of her handlers.

In return, her arms were also scorched.

That was when, they discovered Yoshinda's power couldn't be measured by existing scales and let her live on where she practiced technics with and without weapons. Her ability to cast technics without medium was very useful for our missions as we strike from the shadows but one day, the lab decided to take her ability further with drug enhancement compounds that didn't settle well in her system …

I was away that day with Haddred and we returned to a bloody mess of meat and blood strewn all over the place like some beast that ravaged the entire lab. All 40 over comrades and lab staff dead in that day. Haddred only killed 15 in a lab explosion but Yoshinda killed 40 … we recovered the security footage after the incident, saw her tightly strapped to a bed one moment and next, the straps were burnt and Zan all over the place.

Those who survived Zan met her hands in their faces and Foie right through the head. As if that didn't satisfy her blood lust, those who were already sliced into half by Zan was further abused with Rafoie. The scene was so savage it brought a smile to Luther's face.

Alas, Maria interfered, knocked Yoshinda over took her under her wing."

"Thank you Quna," Eriler said and walked off as the concert ended.

Back in their room, Yoshinda was already up in her battle suit, standing in front of the mirror re-applying the black and white skull make up she always wore.

Eriler simply walked over, wrapped her arms around Yoshinda's waist into a tight hug and whispered into her ears. "I know everything now, please, you don't have to wear that mask anymore, it wasn't your fault."

"Damn you Eriler, my makeup is spoiled again."


End file.
